As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, there are many different devices which are available for the transplantation of trees, shrubs and bushes. For instance, there are tree spades such as those manufactured by the Vermeer Manufacturing Company which form a root ball in the process of digging the tree, shrub or bush out of the ground, and a variety of similar devices have been disclosed in Clegg U.S. Pat. No. 3,936,960, issued Feb. 10, 1976, Schiffelbein U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,148, issued Sep. 6, 1983, and Boehm U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,017, issued Aug. 5, 1986. In addition to tree spades as disclosed in these patents, there have been many different devices proposed for carrying a root ball during transport of a tree, shrub, etc.
By way of example, Edmonds, Jr., et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,148, issued Dec. 13, 1977, proposes a wire basket to hold a root ball. There has also been proposed a tree cradle as disclosed in Mainprice U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,825, issued Aug. 12, 1986 as well as a semi-cylindrical shell arrangement as disclosed in Childs U.S. Pat. No. 3,662,490, issued May 16, 1972. Unfortunately, none of these devices have fully addressed the various considerations for transplanting trees, shrubs and bushes.
More specifically, the wire baskets obviously involve a waste of natural resources. This technique usually involves leaving the wire basket in the ground once a tree, shrub or bush has been transplanted or, alternatively, the wire basket is simply discarded. In either event, the result is incompatible with concerns as to the environment.
In addition, it is well known that wire baskets and tree cradles sometimes fail to sufficiently contain the root ball. It is possible and, in fact, likely in very dry conditions and with certain soil types, that the root ball will break away dangerously exposing roots of a tree, shrub or bush during transport which is naturally a most undesirable circumstance. For these reasons, wire baskets and tree cradles, while oftentimes used, are known to be less than entirely satisfactory.
As for other apparatus, there has been very little in the way of positive improvements over these earlier proposals. It is simply the case that previously proposed devices fail to address concerns such as reducing labor, enhancing handling convenience, and promoting reusability as well as recycling of existing materials. For all of these reasons, it has remained to further develop the art as to carriers for transporting trees, shrubs and bushes.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the foregoing problems and achieving one or more of the resulting objects.